1905 Pirates Project
 

I have this huge cabinet photo of the 1905 Pittsburg Pirates that I've been trying to figure out what to do with. The '1904 Uhlirs' cabinet below is another large team cabinet that has information pressed into the matting in gold. I was thinking about having a matt made for the Pittsburg photo and doing something similar, except the mat would be placed over the existing item (no modification to the actual photo or current matt, other than possibly repairing the top left corner of the photo). I plan to use the same color matt as the original, but could go with a different color.

Thoughts or suggestions?

Forgot to mention. After getting the matt made, might send it over to Coach's Corner for player signatures.

Great looking cabinet...Too bad that top left corner is missing. I like the idea about printing the names on the matting and framing.

Provided the corner can be fixed and the resulting picture centered nicely inside a mat, that'll make for a bang-up piece.

Regards,

Richard.

Thanks Richard,

Luckily the missing corner is very dark - it would just be a matter of creating a small piece and affixing it to the back of the matt, so that it overlaid the empty spot. There are several ways of handling it, but it should be a simple fix.

My dream would be to find the 1909 version of this cabinet, along with a similar one for the 1909 Tigers, somewhere in Maine during a picking trip. I could stop collecting at that point :)

another mockup:

Yeah, that sounds good. While you're out there, pick one up for me too ;)

Regards,

Richard.

Love the looks of that mock-up, Scott! That is a great looking image that will be dramatically improved by that type of framing.

Keep me in mind if you ever decide to sell it - framed or not.

I think that looks really good! Plus it would be a great way to readily identify those in the photo.

I know for a fact there are 2 other early Pirate photos out there like this. A relative of one of the players around the 1904-5 time fame came into my local card shop when I was there. He had a photo of the players in dress attire and the other relative got the one with them in uniform. It was in the original frame and had a ribbon attached of the team colors. Unfortunately he didn't want to sell. I would think a 1909 version would definitely be out there so good luck on finding that piece.

Just checked the roster again. I know the photo I seen had Chesbro on it so it must have been from 1902 or earlier.

Clint, I was sort of kidding - I've seen the two photos I mentioned, but couldn't afford to buy them. The only way I got this one was that the auction that night included so many great cabinet photos that this one looked bad by comparison to some of the others. The photo itself; however, is spectacular - Clarke is probably my favorite:

Wow, the detail in that photo is incredible! The overall scan really doesn't do it justice.

Lance, the photographer must have said "cheese" just the right way - each player has an interesting expression on their face. The only one who looks sort of out of it is Wagner.

I love it! I've mostly only seen these old cabinet photos as scans, and even with the larger scans that are sometimes provided by auction houses, you really can't get a good appreciation for the level of detail in the originals.

These close-ups are from the original Heritage auction scans. This piece was one of the reasons I asked about re-using scans - I can't possibly do any better than they did. Also, I knew I was about to get it framed and if I was going to re-scan, I needed to do it now.

Ah, I see. Sounds like I need to do more trolling for images in Heritage's auction listings :D As far as re-scanning prior to framing, I would say just make sure you have a scan of sufficient quality to print a duplicate if the need arises. That way if you get into a drunken brawl and accidentally put an elbow through the glass (or, in my case, if your son decides to practice pitching in the house), you'll have something to fall back on :p I've been lucky enough to not lose anything that way yet (probably because I don't do much framing), but I have sold photos that I later regretted selling, and wished I had scanned at higher resolution to be able to reprint.

Really cool close-up on the PBC logo.

Regards,

Richard.

Hi Scott, sounds like a great project and would love to see how it comes out! I had this one matted but didn't go beyond that in terms of the players. Overall, I'm glad with how it came out and a heck of a lot more presentable.

George, yours looks great.

Here's a similar-condition item that I purchased framed, and then removed from the frame due to some damage that I saw occurring at the bottom - plus, I wasn't crazy about the modern frame.

Wow, that's an awesome piece Scott! I think a conservator could clean up the paper backing quite a bit to remove a significant amount of the water damage although not so sure how much can be done to the actual photo although that portion seems to be in decent shape.

Keep us posted on your projects...would love to see how they come out!

scott f
 

i think that wagner is looking sort of out of it due to the puffs of cigarette smoke surrounding him. :)
your mock-up looks top shelf to me.
great stuff.
all the best,
barry